In addition to the obvious advantages in the form of anonymity, accessibility, ease of use and low cost of transactions, cryptocurrencies have some serious drawbacks that impede their global adoption. The main one is the connection between crypto and crime. Everyone who has studied this topic even superficially knows that Bitcoin (BTC) still remains a popular payment method among scammers and criminals on the darknet. Cryptocurrencies are very convenient tools for money laundering, evading taxes and cheating investors. Today, I will talk about the most famous cryptocurrency pyramids, from which millions of investors suffered and whose activities amounted to billions …

On Wednesday, a 52-year old man named Fok Fook Seng of Singapore was found guilty of operating a multi-level marketing scam linked to the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin. Since its inception, the OneCoin crypto scam has defrauded investors of more than $4.4 billion. According to local news outlet Channel News Asia, Fok was convicted for promoting the MLM scheme between January 2016 and June 2017 and was fined 100,000 Singapore dollars (~$72,000). The police first pressed charges against him in April 2019 under the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Selling Prohibition Act, which they said was the first of its kind. …

The UK High Court has appointed the Official Receiver as liquidator of the cryptocurrency trading platform, GPay Ltd. According to an announcement published by the UK Insolvency Service on June 30, the crypto exchange showed signs of being "nothing but a scam”. Fake statements abound The firm, also known previously as XtraderFX and Cryptopoint, advertised its services online and through social media channels. The Insolvency Service claims that the ads falsely alleged the service was endorsed by entrepreneurs who appeared in an unnamed UK primetime TV show and a high-profile money saving website. After complaints received by the local authorities, …

Fraudulent websites successfully have stolen the personal records of a number of individuals from the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Spain and more. The attack was executed as a targeted multistage Bitcoin (BTC) scam propagated by a number of fraudulent websites. According to the Singapore-based intelligence company Group-IB, the attack exposed personal data for thousands of people. Impersonating recognized media outlets and personalities Victim's phone numbers, which in most cases came with names and emails, were contained in personalized URLs used to redirect people to websites. These sites posed as local news outlets, even going …

Earlier this week PlusToken, one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency world, tried to move 789,500 Ether (ETH), but the movement of these stolen funds were temporarily held up by congestion issues within the Ethereum network. The $186 million transfer came from a known Ethereum address and was later split into 50 different transactions, possibly as an attempt to disguise the activity. Whale Alert first spotted the transactions which have since been processed but little information on the funds’ destination has been reported. Just two days before this latest development, PlusToken also moved $67 million worth of stolen EOS. …

On June 25, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged the issuer of AML Bitcoin — not to be confused with Bitcoin itself — with conducting a fraudulent offering. These charges follow up on a criminal filing in San Francisco from June 22. AML Bitcoin’s story Per the complaints, Rowland Marcus Andrade and his NAC Foundation raised upwards of $5.6 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) for AML Bitcoin beginning in August 2017 and continuing through 2018, amid the huge ICO boom of that time. The criminal charges filed against Andrade in San Francisco on June 22 refer …

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, in Burnaby, a district of Vancouver in British Columbia, reported a surge of Bitcoin (BTC) related scams across the city. This news comes amid recent reports of similar activity occurring across Canada. Authorities say scammers call their victim and impersonate a member of the RCMP. The scammer then falsely states that the police have an arrest warrant for the victim related to fraudulent activity. Different phone numbers used in the scam’s calls Multiple phone numbers are used in these attacks. Victims often receive multiple calls from different numbers, and are told that if …

Funds from the infamous Chinese-based PlusToken ponzi scheme are moving once again, but they’re being blocked by Ethereum’s block congestion. According to Whale Alert, funds from a known PlusToken Ether (ETH) stash were seen moving to a fresh address. The fraudsters transferred 789,500 ETH, worth about $186 million, in what appears to be an effort to launder their funds. The incoming wallet has since signed more than 50 transactions to split the funds across dozens of wallets, but only one of those appears to have been confirmed. The remaining transactions have been hanging in the mempool for more than 30 …

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has identified a sharp rise in investment scams during the coronavirus pandemic and has singled out crypto-related fraud as a particular concern. Between March and May 2020, investment scams of all types have reportedly risen by 20% as compared to the same period in 2019, according to ASIC’s announcement on June 24. Criminals appear to be attempting to take advantage of the economic insecurity that many citizens are facing during the crisis. ASIC’s executive director for assessment and intelligence, Warren Day, warned that scammers are “using age-old tactics in new and sophisticated ways …

A wallet associated with alleged crypto Ponzi scheme PlusToken has moved 26,316,339 EOS tokens (worth over $67 million as of press time) to an anonymous crypto wallet created less than 24 hours ago. The transaction was spotted by tracking service Whale Alert earlier today. PlusToken is believed to be one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency history, as it reportedly held almost $3 billion worth of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and EOS when it went bust in June last year. Launched in May 2018, PlusToken acted as a crypto wallet service and investment program promising high monthly …

Australians filed 1,810 reports of cryptocurrency-related scams in 2019, collectively totaling more than $21.6 million AU ($14.9 million USD). According to a study by Scamwatch, an arm of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, younger Australians aged 25 to 34 were those most heavily affected by crypto investment scams. According to the report: “Cloud mining farms became a common adaptation of this type of scam. Most were Ponzi schemes, with no real cryptocurrency involved.” It goes on to characterize cloud crypto mining as an “an incredibly resource-intensive activity” that relies on powerful computing systems to mine a coin. This is …

An alleged Bitcoin (BTC) scam is now reportedly targeting residents of Winnipeg, Canada. A local grocery store owner warned that many of his customers were victims of the scammers. According to Global News, Husni Zeid placed a large sign on the Bitcoin machine he has in his store, asking people to exercise caution with regard to phone scams that ask for fake Bitcoin investments. Zeid told the local media outlets: "A lot of people are getting phone calls saying that they have to transfer the money to Bitcoin regarding CRA; we've had Manitoba Hydro as well." Multiple complaints He stressed …